AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-186

ANS is a free, weekly, news and information service of AMSAT North America, The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation. ANS reports on the activities of a worldwide group of Amateur Radio operators who share an active interest in designing, building, launching and communicating through analog and digital Amateur Radio satellites.

Please send any amateur satellite news or reports to: ans-editor@amsat.org

********************************************************************** * 2009 AMSAT Space Symposium and Annual General Meeting October 9-11 * * Four Points Sheraton Hotel at the Baltimore Washington Airport * * Details - http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/symposium/2009/index.php * **********************************************************************

In this edition:

* AMSAT 2009 Space Symposium and Annual General Meeting * AMSAT Forum videos from Dayton Hamvention * SuitSat-2 Systems Integration * AO-51 Engineering Team Continues to Monitor Power Levels * Certificate Available for 13 Colonies Special Event Station * Special Event Station 4C50C via Satellite From Mexico * AMSAT Satellite Communications Achievement Award #500 Issued * Recognition for SumbandilaSat Design and Development * Satellite Shorts From All Over

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-186.01 AMSAT 2009 Space Symposium and Annual General Meeting

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 186.01

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.

July 5, 2009 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-186.01

Now is the time for you to prepare your papers and presentations for the 2009 AMSAT Annual Meeting and Space Symposium to be held October 9 - 11 at the Four Points Sheraton Hotel at the Baltimore Washington Airport.

Proposals for papers, symposium presentations and poster presenta- tions are invited on any topic of interest to the amateur satellite community. We request a tentative title of your presentation as soon as possible, with final copy submitted by September 1, 2009 for inclusion in the printed proceedings.

Abstracts and papers should be sent to Dan Schultz, N8FGV, at n8fgv@amsat.org.

[ANS thanks the 2009 Symposium Committee for the above information]

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SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-186.02 AMSAT Forum videos from Dayton Hamvention

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 186.02

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.

July 5, 2009 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-186.02

Videos of the six presentations at the AMSAT Forum at the 2009 Dayton Hamvention are now on the AMSAT website. Click on this link:

http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/information/videoNews.php - or -

go to the AMSAT website and click on the AMSAT Video News icon about halfway down the page in the left column.

The presentations include:

1. Richard Garriott's forum talk (mislabeled on the web site as the Banquet presentation, actual length about 15 minutes) on his visit to the ISS.

2. AMSAT Status report, Barry Baines, WD4ASW

3. SuitSat-2 Project Status, Gould Smith, WA4SXM

4. Satellite Operations Status, Drew Glasbrenner, KO4MA

5. ARISS Status, Will Marchant, KC6ROL

6. Columbus Module Antennas, Lou McFadin, W5DID

Be sure and watch Barry's presentation on the Status of AMSAT. Thanks go to Steve Belter, who recorded, edited and converted the video of the AMSAT presentations at the 2009 Dayton AMSAT Forum, Rob Meisse W8GSM for setting them up on his server and to Rick Hambly W2GPS for updates on this web page.

[ANS thanks Gould, WA4SXM and Steve, N9IP for above information]

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SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-186.03 SuitSat-2 Systems Integration

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 186.03

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.

July 5, 2009 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-186.03

Many of the SuitSat-2 team members will converge on Phoenix during the weekend of July 10-12 for a system integration party. The team expects to put all of the hardware modules together that have been developed in many parts of the country. SuitSat-2 Project Manager, Gould WA4SXM said, "It is great to be at the point that we can start testing system operations with the hardware and software. The fun begins Friday July 10." You can keep up with the integration activ- ities next weekend using Twitter http://twitter.com/GGouldSmith.

[ANS thanks Gould, WA4SXM for the above information]

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SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-186.04 AO-51 Engineering Team Continues to Monitor Power Levels

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 186.04

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.

July 5, 2009 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-186.04

Due to the increasing time AO-51 is spending in eclipse AMSAT Vice-President of Operations, Drew KO4MA reports that transmitter power levels have needed to be reduced. This way the batteries will provide enough power to keep the satellite operational when the solar cells are not providing charging current. AO-51 users have already noted the weaker signals on the downlinks.

The AO-51 Control Team Web Page for latest operating information will carry the latest status of the satellite. See: http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/echo/CTNews.php

AMSAT now has a Twitter account at http://twitter.com/AMSAT where the AO-51 Operations Team will try to tweet things too small for ANS bull- etins or email, but of interest to the general AMSAT community. The most recent tweet reported, "AO-51 is in "normal" mode, telemetry on 435.150 @ 240mw, V/u repeater on 435.300 @ 290mw."

Gould, WA4SXM, AO-51 Ground Control Station said, "The eclipse time should start to decrease over the next few days hopefully allowing improvement in the transmitter power settings."

Gould continues with the news, "The AO-51 telemetry archive is up to date as of last night. AO-51 telemetry data is available in raw for- mat, CSA (comma separated variable) format that has the channel data converted by the configuration equations and there are some Excel files (most with graphs). There are a number of Excel files with graphs for June 2009 as that was a very interesting month for AO-51 operation. I encourage exploration of the data and any insights gleaned."

The telemetry archive can be found at: http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ftp/telemetry/ao51/

[ANS thanks AO-51 Command Station, Gould WA4SXM for the above information]

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SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-186.05 Certificate Available for 13 Colonies Special Event Station

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 186.05

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.

July 5, 2009 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-186.05

If you worked the stations participating in the Original 13 Colonies Independence Day Special Event between July 1- 5 you can send for a commemorative certificate.

Ken requests, "Each station to send a contact log stating the Date, UTC, Band, & call sign of each contact, along with your QSL card and $4.00 US. in check, MO. or cash (to help defray printing costs). NO SASE required. We will furnish postage, certificate and 9"x12" envelope. No QSL cards will be issued - just the certificate. All award requests and payment to be sent and made out to the KU2US- Award Manager address shown on the event log form."

Log form in PDF format: http://tinyurl.com/nbrxzv Log form in text format: http://tinyurl.com/klv53u

[ANS thanks Ken, KU2US and Tim, N3TL for the above information]

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SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-186.06 Special Event Station 4C50C via Satellite From Mexico

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 186.06

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.

July 5, 2009 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-186.06

Omar XE1AO, a regular satellite operator from central Mexico, reported news of a special callsign that will be showing up on the satellites between now and 31 August 2009.

The call, 4C50C ("Four Charlie Fifty Charlie"), is part of the "Trabaja Todo Colima" (Work All Colima) special event currently taking place in the central Mexican state of Colima. This event is commemorating the 50th anniversary of the creation of the J. Roberto Levy radio club in that state.

During the months of June, July, and August, stations from all over Colima have been on HF and the satellites, trying to put all 10 Colima "municipios" (municipalities, similar to counties in the USA) on the air. On HF, the special call XE50C has been used from different parts of Colima. Now, four hams (XE1AO, XE1ATZ, XE1AY, and XE1J) have been authorized by the Mexican telecommun- ications regulator CoFeTel to use 4C50C on the satellites as part of this event.

Initially, XE1AO will attempt to put 4C50C on AO-51's evening passes along with VO-52 and FO-29 evening passes. Omar and the other 3 hams hope to expand the use of 4C50C onto SO-50 and AO-27, plus look at passes at other times of the day during this period.

For hams outside Mexico, XE1J is the QSL manager for these special calls. The Mexican QSL bureau will take care of QSL requests from XE hams. Along with the QSL cards, there will be a certificate available to stations that work stations in at least 7 of the 10 Colima municipalities and also accumulate at least 74 points based on the location of the stations worked in Colima. Additional points are available for working certain stations like XE50C and 4C50C.

[ANS thanks Omar XE1AO and Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK for the above information]

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SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-186.07 AMSAT Satellite Communications Achievement Award #500 Issued

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 186.07

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.

July 5, 2009 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-186.07

AMSAT Director Contests and Awards, Bruce KK5DO reported, "Since mid May we have been waiting to see who would get the AMSAT Satellite Communications Achievement Award #500. Here are the awards issued in the order they were received. Congratulations to everyone that submitted for the award!"

The following have earned the AMSAT Satellite Communications Achievement Award.

Chris Lemon, KB9CL #490 Ernest Howard, W8EH #491 Peter Portanova, WB2OOQ #492 Michael Klomfass, DH5MK #493 James DeYoung, N8OQ #494 Ronald Parsons, W5RKN #495 Thomas Lepley, KX3TL #496 Chris Meyers, KC0YBM #497 Nick Kucij, KB1RVT #498 George Carr, WA5KBH #499 Ward Hall, WC0Y #500 Jim Klassen, N6JMK #501 James Clary, ND9M #502

To see all the awards visit http://www.amsat.org.

[ANS thanks Bruce, KK5DO for the above information]

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SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-186.08 Recognition for SumbandilaSat Design and Development

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 186.08

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.

July 5, 2009 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-186.08

In recognition of their design and development of the Amateur Payload on South Africa's SumbandilaSat Andrew Roos, ZS6AA, and Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BPZ jointly received the Garth Milne Technology Award. SumbandilaSat is currently planned to be launched on 21 August on a Soyuz Rocket from Baikonur.

[ANS thanks Amateur Radio Newsline Report 1664 - July 3 2009 for the above information]

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SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-186.09 Satellite Shorts From All Over

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 186.09

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.

July 5, 2009 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-186.09

+ Jim, ND9M/VQ9JC plans to return to Diego Garcia (VQ9, Grid MI62) in August. Operation will be on the FM and linear birds shortly thereafter.

+ The next Hudson Valley Satcom Group nets are Thurday July 9 and July 23 at 8:00 PM EDT (UTC-4) and will be simulcast on Echolink node N2EYH-L. More information at http://www.hvsatcom.org (Stu, WA2BSS)

+ Mark, WA8SME will be giving a demonstration of ham radio satellites during the ARRL ETP Teachers Institute in Dayton, Ohio on July 7th. He will be using AO27 on the 1515 EST pass. The equipment will be an ARROW and HT. The call will be W1AW/8. For those that make con- tact, if you would like a QSL, send your card to WA8SME, and he'll get you a card.

+ The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has released the final still images taken by the onboard High Definition Television (HDTV) from Kaguya, just before it completed its mission by impact- ing the moon on June 11, 2009. An entire series of images were taken with an interval of about one minute by the HDTV (Teltephoto) while Kaguya maneuvered its way to impact in Gill Crater. See: http://tinyurl.com/mfg32w click on the arrow in top left to navi- gate to the next photo. (via UniverseToday.com)

+ Launch images from LRO/LCROSS successfull liftoff can be found on-line at: http://tinyurl.com/n5vqab

+ Dutch journalists Govert Schilling and Jaap Meijers have built a Twitter page to let people know when a visible ISS pass is coming. To participate follow the Twitter account @twisst: http://twitter.com/twisst

+ Simulated contacts are being planned for four licensed astronauts during the week of June 29. Soichi Noguchi, KD5TVP, Timothy J. Creamer, KC5WKI, Doug Wheelock, KF5BOC and Satoshi Furukawa, KE5DAW are tentatively scheduled for these training sessions, which are terrestrial-based amateur radio contacts using Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) equivalent equipment.

[ANS thanks everyone for the above information]

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In addition to regular membership, AMSAT offers membership in the President's Club. Members of the President's Club, as sustaining donors to AMSAT Project Funds, will be eligible to receive additional benefits. Application forms are available from the AMSAT Office. And with that please keep in mind that another name for a boomerang that doesn't work is a stick.

73, This week's ANS Editor, JoAnne Maenpaa, K9JKM K9JKM at amsat dot org